Loady-mate was a retread from the Army Air Corps who I knew rather well, and as such I was aware that if the boot was on the other foot he'd not blink an eye at such an opportunity. That, and discovering that the Chinny commander had been handed a large number of beer-tokens by the local RAFA-rep, intended for the BritMil participants, that never reached the crews of two Lynx and a Gazelle....
Like you say;
That’s a proper sh*t’s trick to do to someone you don’t really know.